Tis the Season.

Well Christmas is over and we hope that everyone got what they wanted and were able to spend time with their loved ones. As much as I love Christmas and getting ready for it I am just as happy when it is all over with and things get back to normal. We were able to spend a lot of time with Jennie's brother Greg and his family which the kids love. Here is a quick recap of what our life was like over the past couple of days.



I took the week off for vacation which allowed me to do a lot of things with the kids and family. On Tuesday we met up with Greg, Tacie and the kids for pizza at Angelo's, the best pizza place we have found. We then all went downtown to Tower City (a mall) and walked around looking at all the Christmas stuff they have every year. Here are the kids in front of "Bruce the Spruce." He is a talking tree that the kids can interact with. There is a little camera with a microphone in the branch where someone can hear and see everything going on. The kids ask him questions and he will respond with his answer. It is quite amusing and the kids loved it. I felt kind of bad because they kept asking all the questions and not giving any of the other kids there a chance. We finally had to pull them all away.



Here the are in front of the giant fountain in the middle of the mall. The fountain shoots water in different patterns and allows the kids to throw coins in the middle. This is were the Toy Solider usually performs but we missed him by a couple of days this year.



This is what Kenzie and Nolan did for the majority of the time we were around the fountain. They would run from side to side to make sure that they saw everything.



Here is Brooklyn and Nolan in front of one of the other fountains right next to Bruce the Spruce.



Payton wasn't that into any of the stuff but here is a good picture of her with Jennie. Maybe next year she will get what is going on.



They also had a little craft center where the kids could get their face painted or could paint little crafts. Here is Nolan with his frosty the snowman. Maddux and Kenzie painted little boxes and the rest of the kids painted little piggy banks. We had no idea what we were in for with the piggy banks. The girls took close to an hour painting their piggy banks. Brooklyn spent 40 minutes decorating hers with lots of little things and then at the end took pink paint and painted over the whole thing. What could have taken 5 minutes took an hour for her. The kids had a lot of fun so I guess that is all that matters.

On Christmas Eve Greg and Tacie brought the kids over for dinner at our place. Jennie made shells, salad, and bread for dinner. The kids spent most of the time playing Wii and the computer. There were also a couple of basketball games.



After we had ate, cleaned up and played a couple of games it was time for the kids to each open one present. They are usually allowed to open one which are new pajamas for them to wear that night. Every year they try to open something different but it has yet to work.



Here they are going to town on each of their presents.



Here are most of the kids in their new pajamas.




Maddux in his new hulks. We actually got Nolan the exact same pair but he didn't make it to open presents. He was out before we even started. That is what he gets for refusing to take a nap during the day.



Here are the girls playing Hannah Montana on the Wii. You get to play in a concert and have to do the same moves that she would do. It was kind of funny to watch them perform. In this picture they are playing the guitar.




Finally we have Maddux and Cannon playing some basketball. I think Maddux won every game. It is amazing how good he has gotten over the last year. He doesn't even look down to pick up the ball. He is constantly looking at the hoop and doesn't take his eye off it.

On Christmas the kids got up at 7:00 and were ready to open presents. They were nice enough to let me sleep in until 8:00 before Maddux came in asking, "daddy are you ready to get up so we can open presents?" Needless to say we were opening presents a little after 8. As usual the kids had a very good Christmas. They must have been pretty good during the year. They got a lot of games and stuff for the Wii, some board games, Brooklyn got art stuff, Maddux got superhero stuff, Nolan got Wiggles, and Payton was just happy to be there. It will probably take them a week or so to actually play with everything that they got.



Here is Nolan with his favorite present. He loves phones and cell phones especially. He dunked both mine and Jennie's in glasses of water earlier in the year. What was really funny was that the phone kept ringing and every time he would stop whatever he was doing to answer it and say hello. He would be right in the middle of opening a present and would stop when it rang.



Here is Jennie's favorite gift, a giant love sac. It is like a beanbag but a hundred times better. It is filled with durafoam so it conforms to your body and lasts much longer. The bag is 7.5 feet around and just as big as our couch. They do take some time to set up but are well worth the effort. I have already taken two naps on it and it is amazing. One of the most comfortable things you will ever sit in.

Here is a little slide show of what our morning looked like.

For dinner we headed over to Greg and Tacie's for turkey, mashed potatoes and all the trimmings. It was very good and I ate way to much. I think the kids played on the Wii for the entire day and are still on it as we speak. It has not had much rest in the last couple of days.

Then yesterday we found out that they were inducing Tacie, who was due the day before Christmas, so the kids were going to come over and stay with us. Of course our kids loved that. That would mean that they would get to see their cousins for a 5th straight day and would get to have a sleepover. Jennie took them all to the pool last night and wore them out. They had a pretty late night but I don't think it took anyone more than 5 minutes to fall asleep. We are excited for them are their family and for the new baby.

Well we hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and we thank you all for your generosity and kindness. We love you all and wish you all the best in the upcoming year.